Idea for California bullying hotline pitched at state Capitol

Relentless mother, lawmaker behind SB 231

More than four years after Michael Berry – a victim of bullying – shot himself in a school bathroom, his mother stood at the state Capitol on Wednesday next to the lawmaker who has introduced a bill inspired by her relentless efforts to help bullying victims.

“I kept waiting for someone to do something,” Lisa Ford-Berry told KCRA 3. “Kids are dying. My son is dead and no one cared.”

SB 231, which was passed Wednesday by the Senate Education Committee, would create a 24-hour hotline dedicated to bullying, and staffed by psychologists, said Sen. Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana.

Correa and Ford-Berry were flanked by children, parents and teachers at a morning news conference at the Capitol, where Correa said he hopes a hotline would be used by children and teens who may be too afraid to tell their parents about bullying, or too embarrassed to tell their teachers.

Ford-Berry said in her son’s case, he had reached out for help from adults at his high school, but he was not heard.

She said the school never notified her or her husband, and that the family did not know Michael was being bullied until they read a lengthy letter he wrote before he took his life in September 2008.

Two years later, Ford-Berry’s husband encouraged her to take action to help others, she said.

“Cold-calling, no joke,” she said. “I cold-called the Capitol.”

Those calls led to meetings with lawmakers, and eventually, the bill to create a hotline.

Psychologists who staff the hotline would not just provide immediate counseling, but also inform a child’s parents and school about the bullying, Correa said.

Ford-Berry said she hopes the hotline will save lives.

“My other kids are grown, my youngest son is dead,” she said. “And what I do, I do for other people’s children, to ensure that the heartache that we live with, no one else is ever faced with a phone call.”

The bill will now go to the Senate appropriations committee.

Correa would not discuss dollar figures for staffing a hotline, saying the costs are still being worked out.

He had introduced the bill previously, but said it failed because of ongoing worries over the state budget deficit.

Correa said he hopes the state’s improving budget will mean the bill can succeed this time.